


Flying Lessons

by lifevolutionary



Series: Kith and Kin [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-23
Updated: 2010-07-23
Packaged: 2017-10-10 18:26:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifevolutionary/pseuds/lifevolutionary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Cas let Gabriel write the note." Dean held it up for Sam to read.</p><p><i>Gone flying. Be back later.</i></p><p>Gabriel, Cas & Joanna</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flying Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> This fic marks the beginning of the second arc of the Kith and Kin 'verse, in which there is actually something resembling a plot.
> 
> (Arc 1: Family (9,550 words), Arc 2: Lessons (10,600))

The Angels had gone walk about.

Okay, Sam was over-simplifying, the Archangel and the Angel had gone walk about with the half-Angel. The half-Archangel was cradled in Sam's arms, gurgling happily and proving that Joanna wasn't the only Winchester child with a fascination for Sam's hair.

Sam peered out into the garden, frowning at the lack of Gabriel, Cas and Joanna. He'd checked all over the house. Now he fished his phone out and tried to call Gabriel's mobile. When all he got was the message that said the phone he was calling was out of range he headed to the kitchen, where he'd last seen Dean.

The component parts of at least three guns were spread across the counter but Dean was standing in front of the fridge, scowling at a piece of paper pinned to it with a magnet.

"Do you know where Gabriel and Cas have gone? They've taken Joanna with them."

"I have no freaking clue." Dean responded absently, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't know they were going anywhere."

"So why aren't you worried?" Sam asked, frustrated by his brother's distracted air.

"Because they left a note." Dean pulled the paper he'd been studying off the fridge.

Sam clenched his teeth, "If they left a note, why did you say you didn't know where they'd gone?"

An amused snort, "Because Cas let Gabriel write the note." He held it up for Sam to read.

_Gone flying. Be back later._

Gabriel, Cas &amp; Joanna

~*~

Karya didn't get many visitors these days. As the dryad of a specific chestnut tree, in a specific clearing, in a specific forest she didn't get out much. In years gone past people used to come to her; a certain sect of pagan gods used to favour her clearing for performing rites and making deals but none of them came anymore.

So she was more than a little surprised when three beings appeared in her clearing; two men and a young girl child. There something strange about them, something that glowed in her inner vision, brightest around the shorter man and least around the girl. It took her a long moment to realise what she was seeing.

Grace, she was seeing the grace of an Angel. She put her hands to her mouth to hold in her gasp. She'd never seen an Angel before, although...now she looked closer, the brightest Angel did look kind of familiar.

"Where are we?" The taller Angel asked.

"A place I used to come to back when I was hiding from Dad." So she had seen him before, but then why hadn't she sensed his grace? Had he been hiding that much of himself?

"Gabriel." The other Angel sounded scolding and he tightened his arms around the little girl, who was looking around with interest.

"Oh relax, Cas, it's perfectly safe." He spun, his arms out and she recognised that gesture, "None of the old crowd come here anymore."

Loki, he was Loki. She smiled happily at him even though he couldn't see. How could she have forgotten? He'd always been her favourite, the only one of those who used her clearing who always came back afterwards and left an offering at her tree. So he'd been an Angel in hiding all along, how thrilling.

"First things first," Loki, no, Gabriel reached out and took the girl from the other Angel, Cas, Gabriel had called him, and sat down cross-legged on the grass, placing the girl on the ground in front of him, "Before we can teach her to fly, we need to get her to manifest her wings."

Cas hesitated and then sat next to Gabriel, fussing with his long, black coat until it lay around him the way he wanted it to.

"I'm still not sure we should be encouraging this, what if she cannot control them once she has manifested them?"

"Well, that's what we're here to teach her."

The little girl spoke up then, apparently having inspected the surroundings to her satisfaction. "S'okay, Papa, I can do it. I want learn to fly!"

Gabriel raised his eyebrows at Cas, as if to ask 'are you going to argue with her?'

"Fine," Cas resettled himself, as if trying for a more comfortable position. "What do I need to do?"

"Yay, thank you Papa," the girl bounced.

Gabriel grinned happily at them, "First you need to join your grace to Joanna's so she can feel what you do, I'll help you with that, then you'll need to manifest your wings."

Cas tilted his head to the side, "That is...actually quite a brilliant idea."

"You don't need to sound so surprised," Gabriel huffed and Joanna laughed, "I do have them occasionally." He clapped his hands together, "So come on, Bro, get your grace out, no need to be shy."

Cas rolled his eyes and then Karya saw the glow around him brighten and reach out to Joanna in bright tendrils. Gabriel's glow also brightened and his grace reached out to both of them, pulling on the tendrils of Cas' grace and wrapping them around the paler, muted glow that was in Joanna.

The glow brightened as all three graces mixed and Joanna sat bolt upright, her blue eyes turning bright and liquid with power, "Oh, Papa, I can feel you"

"Good," Gabriel pulled his grace back slightly, "Now Joanna, you keep concentrating on your father and what you can feel from him. Cas, whenever you ready."

Karya watched avidly as Cas frowned in concentration, his grace bunching up beneath his shoulder-blades. When he finally let it out, for a moment it was like light spilling out of him, only the shape of it suggesting wings but then the light darkened and coalesced into silvery, slate grey feathers. Cas spread his full wingspan once across the clearing and then folded them down as far as they would go while he was sitting down.

Joanna reached out and brushed her fingers along a flight feather. "They're so pretty. Will mine look like that?" She looked up at Cas hopefully.

"We won't know until you can bring them out." Cas told her gently, "Do you think you could do that, now you've felt how I do it?"

"Um," Joanna bit her lip, "Maybe." She hesitated, "Uncle Gabriel..."

Gabriel grinned at her, "You want me to get mine out too?" Joanna nodded quickly. "Okay, then."

Karya knew what to expect this time as Gabriel's grace reached out to wrap around Joanna, what surprised her was that the glow building under his skin reached a lot further down his spine than it had done with Cas. She found out why when the light burst out of him and formed into the golden-bronze feathers of three separate pairs of wings. Archangel, Karya's instincts told her, that meant he was an Archangel.

Gabriel uncrossed his legs and stood, a beautific smile on his face as he spread all six of his wings out and skyward, filling the entire clearing with his presence. Joanna gasped, her face bright and happy and awestruck. Karya didn't blame her, it was magnificent sight.

Gabriel came back to himself and looked down at his niece, wiggling his eyebrows. "Your turn now."

She nodded, face screwing up with all the determination that could be mustered by a child only a few years in the world. She closed her eyes hard and her grace began to flicker and brighten.

Karya clasped her hands together nervously, urging Joanna on. It was a nerve-wracking few minutes before Joanna's grace settled brighter and began collecting at her shoulders. She clenched her small fists and bit her lip and it spilled out into light. Her feathers took longer to form than Cas' or Gabriel's had done but when they did they were pale grey, speckled with the same blonde as her hair. A single set of wings, smaller to fit her smaller frame and softer looking, as if they were not fully matured yet.

Gabriel whooped, the tips of his wings flicking up triumphantly.

Cas smiled, "You can open your eyes now." Joanna's eyes sprung open immediately and she looked over her shoulder, her mouth falling open and her eyes opening wide.

"I did it," she breathed, "I have wings. Papa, I have wings." Cas reached out and gathered her into his arms, curling his wings around her and stroking the tips of them along her feathers.

"Yes you do, I'm so proud of you." Karya smiled at them, watching as Gabriel flicked one of his lower wings around to ruffle Joanna's hair, pleased that her Loki had found himself a family.

"Me too, Squirt." Joanna grinned up at him.

"Can I fly now, can I?" She grabbed hold of Cas' shoulders and bounced, flapping her wings excitedly. Gabriel laughed.

"Almost, but you've got some things to learn about first." Cas frowned and untangled himself from Joanna, standing up.

"You wish to teach her about air currents and the like first? Surely she doesn't need to know that yet." Gabriel raised his eyebrows. Joanna, still sat on the ground, ignored the two of them and flapped her wings experimentally, a frown of concentration on her face.

"Excuse me, who taught who how to fly?" Gabriel asked indignantly.

"I was created fully grown and could understand your complicated instructions."

As the two of them continued to argue Joanna flapped her wings again and managed to lift her bottom off the ground. She narrowed her eyes and adjusted the set of her wings, trying again. This time she managed to flap herself to her feet and then onto her tiptoes.

Karya had to stifle a laugh as she watched Gabriel and Cas ruffle their feathers at each other, completely oblivious to Joanna's increasingly successful attempts to get herself airborne. It wasn't until she actually managed to flap herself up to eye level that they both jumped and turned to stare at her.

"Joanna!" Cas called out, startled and she dropped. Gabriel caught her and swung her up into his arms.

She grinned at him, panting and he laughed. "You just love showing me up, don't you, Squirt?" She snuggled into his arms, curling her wings in against his. Cas smiled at them.

"I think that perhaps we should stop there for today." Cas said, wings lighting with grace and then fading back into his body. Gabriel nodded and touched the top of Joanna's head. Her wings faded too but she didn't look up. Karya realised that the little girl had fallen asleep in Gabriel's arms.

Gabriel folded his own wings away and then smirked, "Race you home." And then he was gone, Joanna with him. Cas rolled his eyes and vanished too.

Karya laughed and started to slip back inside her tree but she stopped with a frown when she sensed something that shouldn't have been there. A residual aura of someone other than the Angels. Someone had been there, someone had been watching the Angels while hiding from both their sight and hers.

Someone only noticeable to her now that they had gone because of a sense of evil and the lingering smell of sulphur.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Flying Lessons [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644713) by [Tbowen71](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tbowen71/pseuds/Tbowen71)




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